Anime Lectio: Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky

                                                            1. Why do Anime Lectio? 

Anime Lectio is a time for us to stop and take a breath. Between work, activities, family life, and social media, our minds are always moving. We rarely take time to contemplate and ask, why am I watching this anime? What’s the point of all this? And, how is this making me feel? 

2. Put away all distractions 

(phones, work, etc.)

We are so enslaved to things that stimulate our minds. Let this be a moment for us to free our minds, look inside of ourselves, and be at peace. The only device you need is the one you use for this blog.

3. Deep Breathing - Open yourself to God’s Presence

Take several deep breaths. Let your mind relax. If you’ve had any questions, desires, or struggles that

you’ve been hiding or stuffing away, let them rise up to the surface. Remember God places all our

thoughts and desires inside of us, and He uses them to draw us closer to Himself. God gives us a

community to help us understand who we are and what He is calling us to do. The faces of people you

know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence. 

4. Think About What’s on Your Mind in Relation to the Anime

Think about what’s been on your mind in relation to the anime.  The following is an example of such thoughts written by me. 

 

Any kind of loving relationship is better when it's personal, which is something that I actually brought up in the Alateen meeting at the school I work in when discussing the second step of the twelve step program of relying on the help of a higher power.  This higher power doesn't need to be God.  It's better if the higher power is more personal and can help you, as well as can meet you where you are instead of meeting it wherever it is.  Faith is also important here as it helps you believe in whatever your higher power is, like the other person, or people, in the relationship that you are in.  An example of this can be seen in the series Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky.

5. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, as well as seeing the anime for yourself since I think that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

A young man ends up at a party that his college roommate brings him to in order for this young man to get out more, which he usually doesn't do.  They end up sitting with two girls.  One of these girls is blind and the other is there to help her.  The four end up hanging out together more and the young man who usually doesn't get out a lot ends up spending more time with the blind girl in order to get to know here better.  After doing that for a while, the young man admits he loves the blind girl to the other two friends they hang out with sometimes, which one records for the blind girl to hear.  However, the blind girl isn't around for about a week after that and after going to a certain hospital to try to find her, her friends do find her, but she claims she doesn't remember anything due to her amnesia as a result of the cancer that caused her blindness.  She also tells the young man who still loves her to forget about her since she only has 6 months left to live, but he can't forget about her and they end up getting married since she lives longer than she's expected to.

6.  Reflect on the anime

Has this brief and written explanation of the anime shed any light on what's been on your minds?  The following is an example of a reflection on the anime from me.

What makes this series interesting is the point where the blind girl claims she doesn't remember the young man who loves her, as well as anything about him or what else she did with him and the other people she met. Before that point, the young man went from not really having any, or a lot of, relationships with others since he tended to avoid them and not really think much about them to thinking more about the time he spent with the blind girl to the point of falling in love with her romantically. He didn't have to go far to find what he was looking for. He needed to stay with the blind girl, not because it only helped her, but because it helped him too, which is important in any kind of loving relationship. Faith is also important here since it allows this relationship to continue, even when one person in the relationship is no longer with you physically. In this series, this is represented by the

crinum lilies seen at the end of it, which are a symbol of faith that mean "I will have faith in you as you journey far away" (or something like that).

7. Final Prayer

Please voice any prayer intentions for friends, family, or people around the world that relate to this anime.  The following is an example written by me.

Let us pray that we can have faith in the ones who love us and have changed us, even as they journey far away.